Cableway planned for Drakensberg

KwaZulu Natal’s MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Michael Mabuyakhulu, has announced that the province is planning to build a cableway at a height almost three times that of Table Mountain in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg, according to a report by The Mercury.

Mabuyakhulu, who unveiled the plan at Indaba 2012, said the project would change the tourism landscape. He said a detailed feasibility study on the proposed Drakensberg Cable Car was about to get under way.

One of the preferred sites is in the Mnweni Valley near the Royal Natal National Park section of the World Heritage Site. The proposed summit station would be in Lesotho.

The minister said the cable car was one of four tourism products that needed to be developed – he did not name the others – and the plan was to investigate the development of a 3 300-metre-long cableway.

While the plan is set to win support as a boost for tourism, the location of a cable car next to a World Heritage Site is likely to draw criticism from environmental groups opposed to the commercialisation of a wilderness environment. Mabuyakhulu said adverts calling for service providers to undertake the study had been issued. The deadline for submissions is June 11.

A pre-feasibility study was done in 2000 and indicated that some of the benefits of the project included the creation of 1 200 jobs and increased opportunities for small business in the tourism value chain.

“That study also indicated the project would create a new economic node in the Drakensberg region and would position KwaZulu Natal on the national and international tourism map as a preferred tourism destination.”

Mabuyakhulu said the detailed feasibility study would include an environmental impact assessment that would look at the environmental, economic and social issues as well as cost of development.

He said the aim was to ensure the “co-existence of environmental management and economic development”.